Boatmen or longshoremen

[Wansworth]

Do they still lurk around harbours ready to earn a crust.YeRs ago in Cowes I transported two inebriated Squadran members to their yacht in my dinghy,they hailed me from Groves they neglected to reimburse me !

 

[ShinyShoe]

Elf an Safety Mate
Insurance
Blah blah...

But my grand master plan is to round Britain at weekends returning by train etc... I'm told people used to do this a million years ago and left the boat in the 'arbour under the watchful of local boatmen. There may have been a bit of "Mr 2 bob to watch your motor" about it... ...but if such does exist I'd be keen to make them on my list of stopping points when I finally get down to the mission...

 

[Wansworth]

I think they used to be called railwY harbours and it was common place probably between the wars and before Beeching.

 

[ShinyShoe]

I think they used to be called railwY harbours and it was common place probably between the wars and before Beeching.

Yes - with tickets that let you travel to one harbour and return from another.

Wont be so easy nowadays thanks to Dr Beeching. But I can cope with the train side. But like the yourself I'm interested in if the Boatmen still lurk in the shadows.

 

[Wansworth]

Chichester Harbour in the 1960 had bus services fro the various small villages with moorings around the harbour to the nearest town with a railway station but these along with the local shops have disappeared.The modern equivalent is of course the marina .

 

[Humblebee]

Perhaps the word has a slightly different meaning up here.
In the last village I lived in there were still one or two creel boats, worked more as hobby boats than for a living.
A retired member of the crew, who no longer went out in the boat, used to potter around and help out on shore - mending creels, tidying up ropes and the like. His title was "Longshoreman".